Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Annabelle and Marcelle Beauty Premiere + Haul

Hey Everyone,

Last week while in Toronto, I had the absolute privilege of attending the Beauty Premiere, an event hosted by Annabelle and Marcelle Cosmetics to showcase some of the new products they have coming out in February 2012.

The event was hosted at the Thompson Hotel rooftop lounge, an extremely swanky bar overlooking the city of Toronto. With hard wood floors, big picturesque windows and a sleek bar, the lounge was extremely chic and perfect for a fun night out on the town.

When I first walked into the lounge area, I was greeted by one of the super friendly Annabelle/Marcelle ladies and handed a glass of champagne. She explained the different activities going on that night and suggested I hit up the lipgloss making booth (yes, you heard me right) before it got too busy.

The Lipgloss Making Booth

Talking to some of the Toronto Beauty Bloggers on twitter, I had heard rumours that we would be able to make our own lipgloss at the event. Picturing one of those little kids makeup sets where you can mix some vaseline with different coloured powders, I was shocked to see that the actual process was much more exciting and scientific.

At the booth was a display of 20 plus different lipgloss colours and finishes. After selecting anywhere from 4-6 colours, the mad scientist (aka the nice man who let me make not 1 but 3 glosses) mixed your selections into a syringe and skirted your newly created lipgloss into two tubes.

As I mentioned, I made more than one lipgloss. While I was somewhat able to imagine what my glosses would look like, it was so much fun seeing how they actually looked once mixed and I had to keep going back for more. Thanks to the generosity of Annabelle and Marcelle, I have six tubes of my own lipgloss, three of which I will be giving away in an upcoming post.

The New Products

After creating my own glosses, I decided to wander around the room and check out some of the new products Annabelle and Marcelle are bringing out for Spring 2012. Here are some of their awesome new creations:

Marcelle Renforcils Water Proof Eye Makeup Remover

This paraben free, hypo allergenic makeup remover is just like a liquid remover, but in gel form. Not only does this makeup remover remove stubborn waterproof mascara, it also contains lash fortifying complex that helps to condition your lashes. I am super excited to try this product as I find liquid removers tend to feel somewhat oily on my skin.

Marcelle BB Cream

As the first Canadian made BB cream, Marcelle's new cream has the coverage of a BB cream without the whitening ingredients. This BB cream contains aloe vera to help calm the skin and reduce signs of redness. I tried this product on the back of my hand and couldn't believe how light it was. I have tried some BB creams in the past, but have found the formulas to be thick and sticky. This cream blended into the skin amazingly well and gave my hand a nice finish.

Marcelle Xtension Plus Mascara

This lengthening and volumizing mascara uses a specially designed brush to create longer and fuller lashes. The brush which has normal sized bristles on one side and longer bristles on the other, gets down to the roots of the lashes, creating a more dramatic look. I was actually surprised when I found out the price point of this mascara, $12.50CND, because it's surprisingly inexpensive for a higher end drugstore line.

Annabelle Smudge Paints

These half cream liners/half cream shadows come in a cute little container with a thick eyeliner brush to make application easier. There are currently five colours in the Smudge Paint collection and let me tell you, they are PIGMENTED. Luckily I happened to be around at the end of the night when they were giving these away and was able to snag myself three of the five colours.

Annabelle Big Show Lipgloss

Annabelle's Big Show glosses are super creamy, non-sticky glosses that give the lips a somewhat metallic finish. I love how creamy these glosses are and am really excited about the range of colours these glosses come in (metallic deep purple to light metallic peach).

Annabelle Glitterama Liquid Eyeliners

These gorgeous glitter eyeliners come in a variety of colours from bright orange to beautiful light pink. With a super tiny tipped brush, this eyeliner is easy to apply and looks great over a simple black liner for a night out look.

Hors D'Oeuvres?!

Of course it wouldn't be a swanky night out without some cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and while I loved my peach martini and the large display of desserts, my favourite hors d'oeuvres came in the form of makeup!

Fulfilling the dreams of any beauty blogger and/or makeup addict, Annabelle and Marcelle had waiters carrying around silver trays full of makeup. At first, us bloggers tried to act somewhat polite and only took a couple of pieces, but by the end of the night, we couldn't hold back and started grabbing handfuls of makeup and cramming them into our bags. My clutch that folded over at the beginning of the night couldn't even close and some of the girls had their pockets so full they kept dropping products every few steps.

Here is what I managed to grab (Annabelle and Marcelle, I am sorry for taking so much. I hope you will still consider inviting me to future events. I swear I'll learn to control myself...maybe.) **Note, I have chosen not to swatch them as I plan to include a lot of the items in upcoming giveaways **:

Marcelle Eye Dusts in 'Bronze Millionaire' and 'Fantasia' and Annabelle Eyeshadow in '101'

Annabelle Smudge Paint in 'Muddy', 'Skyline' and 'Plummed'

The People

One of the best parts of the night was being able to meet up with all of my favourite Toronto Beauty Bloggers. These girls are so amazingly sweet and welcoming and always make me feel like I want to move to Toronto just so we can hang out. Here are just a few of the beautiful ladies at the event:

Creating your own (multiple!!) lipglosses - that has got to be the most awesome, and probably the most generous, thing I've heard of a company doing for a beauty PR event! I'm super jealous xD Not jealous enough to buy materials to mix my own glosses though ... that would be work, not fun. ^.^

Wow...I am jealous. Lol..and I live in Toronto! I'm 20 away from dt and work in the eaton centre lol! I'm so glad you got to experience this and even more excited to see you sharing this fun with us :) I love these things but am too shy to go to these things!